Round 11 – St. Kilda v North Melbourne: Saints hop over the hapless Kangaroos

 

 

St. Kilda v North Melbourne

1:10PM, Sunday May 29

Marvel Stadium

 

 

For we poor and deranged supporters watching a game of footy is an exercise in heightened anxiety; always hopeful but fearing the worst. But this wasn’t a game that fitted in with this long worn tradition. The Saints are having a good season and the Kangaroos are on the back foot, which is an oxymoron because that is something real life kangaroos can’t do. The game starts and for the first half of the quarter it is a fairly even contest. The first four goals of the game are all classics. Saint Dan McKenzie grabs the ball outside the forward 50, breaks a tackle, sidesteps an opponent and kicks truly; the Roos’ Cam Zurhaar zigzags his way around Saints in the forward pocket and snaps a neat goal; Max King uses his head in sticking up his right paw in pushing the ball onto his head and then grabbing it on its downward path with the now rested paw; and the Roos’ Todd Goldstein kicking a left foot banana from the boundary line following a mark. Big Todd also took a screamer in the third for another goal. It wasn’t as good as Ian Cooper’s against the Demons at the MCG in 1965, but it was up there.

 

 

But that was about it for the Roos. With about eight minutes to go in the first quarter Seb Ross scored a freakish goal. Following a ball up on the wing he grabbed the ball, dummied a hand pass, broke a tackle and headed forward, had a bounce and from 70 to 75 meters bombed it forward, the ball bounced about ten meters out from the goal square and then bounced its way through the big sticks. The Saints then kicked two more in a hurry and were up by three goals at the first break. The Saints had dominated the inside 50s 15 to 7. The Kangaroos racked up possessions with short passes in the back 5o, but were hesitant going forward.

 

 

The Saints controlled the rest of the match. They only kicked one in the second quarter missing three very gettable goals from set shots to be only up by four goals at the main break. The third quarter saw the Saints convert their dominance onto the scoreboard. They won possessions 96 to 60, inside 50s 17 to 5 and scored six goals to two. Second gamer Mitch Owens kicked two in 17 seconds of play, the first a snap from a Ben Long handpass and the second off the deck following a Ben Long tackle (he is such a nuisance up forward). Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera nailed a perfect pass to Max King halfway through the quarter which was like watching poetry in motion. Whatever intensity had been in the game dissipated in the last quarter. The Roos were more competitive,  with the Saints outscoring them four goals to three. The Saints ran out winners in what turned out to be a stress free game.

 

 

At the halfway point of the season the Saints are 8-3 and in the top four on percentage; something that Sainters would have accepted at the start of the season. The team have steadily improved over the season with a nice balance of defence and attack. A bye next week then the Lions away in sunny Brisbane. A good game to win; not that there has ever been a bad game to win!

 

 

Go Saints

 

 

ST KILDA             5.2   6.5   12.7  16.7 (103)

NORTH MELBOURNE    2.2   2.3   4.4   7.8 (50)

 

GOALS

St. Kilda: King 3, Owens, Membrey, Gresham 2, McKenzie, Ross, Ryder, Sharman, Windhager, Hill, Marshall.

North Melbourne: Goldstein 2, Zurhaar, Zeibell, Anderson, Curtis, Simpkin.

 

BEST

St. Kilda: Sinclair, Hill, Gresham, Ross, Crouch.

North Melbourne: Anderson, McDonald, Simpkin, Goldstein, Corr.

 

Crowd: 23,464

 

Malarkey Votes: Gresham 1 (StK), Hill 2 (StK), Sinclair 3 (StK)

 

 

 

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